HEALTHY Brookies!

12:33 PM

I love it when a plan comes together. I've been really "good" about sweets lately -- hardly indulging beyond a green smooth...

I love it when a plan comes together. I've been really "good" about sweets lately -- hardly indulging beyond a green smoothie and I've been trying to eat mostly raw vegan foods. But last night I cracked. Rather than dive full face into a vat of ice cream I grabbed my food processor and whipped up a really amazing bar -- a virtuous brookie. This bar could be dinner its so healthy. But taste it and you'd never know it was good for you.If you don't know what a brookie is, basically it's a brownie like bar with a brownie bottom layer and a cookie topping. I went with the classic brookie flavours in my bar recipe --> a gargantuan chocolate chip cookie on top of a fudgey chocolate chip brownie. Delicious. I did not go classic at all for the recipe though -- black bean-sweet potato-avocado brownie meet chickpea chocolate chip cookie dough! I also kept the sugar low and from exclusively healthy sources -- thank you stevia, maple and raw honey!Perhaps the only unhealthy addition was the chocolate chips, but even they aren't so bad and could easily be omitted or replaced with cacao nibs. I opted to use Enjoy Life brand -- they're sweetened with brown sugar but they're soy-free, nut-free, dairy-free and totally vegan so I dig them big time. Oh and they're mini, who doesn't love that! All in all this amazing bar is loaded with vegan protein (chickpeas, black beans), good fat (avocado), good veg and good starch (sweet potato, brown rice flour), and healthy sweeteners (stevia with a touch of maple syrup and raw honey). As far as I'm concerned, it might just be what's for dinner, tonight.PS: The recipe is in two parts because the bar has two layers!

The Healthy Brookie: Brownie Layer

1/2 cup cacao powder or cocoa powder

Pinch salt

1 ripe avocado(mine was average in size, about the size of a hardball baseball)

Blend all ingredients except mini chocolate chips together in food processor until smooth and thick like waffle batter (thicker than a cake batter, more like a thick pudding). Add more flour if the batter is too thin or more water if the batter is too thick. Taste. Add stevia to sweeten to your taste and blend well. Once you think the batter is sweet enough, add mini chocolate chips and pulse to distribute evenly. Scrape the mixture into a parchment lined 9x9 square cake pan and spread evenly out to edges. Place in freezer while you make cookie topping.

The Healthy Brookie: Cookie Layer

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Pinch salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2-1 cup brown rice flour

1 tbsp raw honey

1 tbsp maple syrup

Liquid pure stevia to taste

1 tbsp soy-free vegenaise or coconut oil

1.5-2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup mini vegan chocolate chips plus a small handful

Preheat oven to 350F.

Blend everything but rice flour and chips until smooth. Add the flour in batches, blending and tasting until the texture is comparable to a traditional, thick and cold cookie dough. Once the cookie dough is thick, stop adding flour. Add enough liquid stevia to sweeten the dough to your taste (add a little at a time and blend after each addition, tasting as you go). Add the ¼ cup of chocolate chips and pulse to distribute evenly.

Remove brownie layer from freezer. Top with dollops of the dough evenly and flatten them out with a spoon. Sprinkle the extra handful of chocolate chips over the top evenly. Bake in the center of the hot oven until firm. The edges need to be firm so look up close by lifting up a corner of the parchment when you think its nearly done to be sure that the edges have fully set. I baked mine about 15-20 mins.

Slice and serve hot. This bar tastes nice room temperature as well after it cools.